The Braves’ (0-2, 0-0) offense managed just 95 total yards while Marlboro picked up 233 rushing yards on the ground in a contest that was over after the first half.

The Bulldogs used a steady dose of hard-nosed running and play action passing to dismantle the Cheraw defense, scoring early and often to the tune of 23 first-half points.

The Braves felt the pressure of the Bulldog’s defense all night, as the team was unable to move the ball across the 50-yard line until the 6:36 mark in the third quarter, highlighting a woeful offensive performance by Cheraw during the contest.

Cheraw head coach Johnny White said that he believed the lack of offensive firepower wasn’t because of effort, but was because of poor decision making when the ball was in their hands.

“I don’t think it was an effort thing (tonight),” White said.  “We had a lot of blown assignments.  We’ll have a good play or a series of plays, but right after the good play we have an awful play. Right now we’re just not good enough to convert long downs and distances. We had a lot of inconsistent play tonight and blown assignments offensively. We’re making the same mistakes over and over and we have to get that corrected, it’s just a lack of experience. The kids aren’t going out there trying to mess up, we just had a lot of busted assignments.  It’s a mental thing.”

Marlboro began the game with an early show of offense, scoring the first touchdown five minutes after the opening kickoff.  Marlboro quarterback Brian Townsend found receiver Malik Ford wide open past the Braves’ defense for a 45-yard scoring strike on the Bulldogís opening possession.

Marlboro would again score in the first half on a 34-yard field goal by place kicker Ryan Jansen, giving the Bulldogs an early 10-0 lead after the first quarter.

The second quarter scoring by the Bulldogs would be highlighted by running back Jeremy Littles, who scored Marlboro’s second touchdown of the game after an impressive run from the Bulldog’s 46-yard line.  Littles received the handoff from Townsend and ran up the middle of the field where he was met by most of the Cheraw defense, but instead of going down, Littles broke free of the Braves’ charge, spinning off defenders for a 54-yard scoring run to give Marlboro a 17-0 advantage with 7:47 left in the half.

Marlboro would end their second half scoring two minutes later after recovering a Cheraw fumble at the Braves’ 27-yard line. Townsend again found Ford for a 26-yard play-action touchdown pass to give the Bulldogs their fourth score of the night.

Marlboro missed the extra point giving the team a 23-0 lead heading into the break.

After halftime, the Braves’ offensive troubles continued, as the team was unable to muster a scoring drive in the second half.

Marlboro would score one last time in the third quarter on a 13-yard run by Lateek Townsend up the middle, capping off a 30-point, 357 yard offensive performance.

“We had some key plays in the first half defensively,” White said.  “One thing that stuck out in my mind was we had a 3rd-and-2 play when it was 10-0 and we had the guy down three or four yards in the backfield, but we missed a tackle and then they busted it for a touchdown.  We had a lot of missed tackles, a lot of arm tackling where we didnít get our shoulder pads on the ball.  We have to get better tackling.”

On the night, the Braves managed just 20 total passing yards as quarterbacks Austin Nolan and Darius Little combined for 2-for-7 passing under center. Cheraw running back Tierell Smith led the Braves with 50 yards on the ground in nine carries.

Townsend finished the game with 134 yards passing against the Braves’ defense while Littles finished the contest with 13 carries for 104 yards.  Ford ended the game with 115 receiving yards for the Bulldogs.

After the game White told the team that currently they were working on the level of the second cylinder of an eight-cylinder engine and that they would need to keep working to get to top form by the end of the season.

“There’s only one way you can do that,” White said. “You may not get there next week, but we are striving towards improving every day in practice and that’s what we aim for.  It could be a slow process but that’s part of the journey.  We want to be great right now, but we don’t have to be great, we just have to get better. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves.  We’re going to have to come back and get better.”

The Braves will try to rebound next week against Chesterfield High School on Sept. 3 as they take on the Rams in the annual rivalry on the road.

The Rams will be looking for their second win of the season while the Braves will look to get in the win column for the first time this season.

Read more: The Cheraw Chronicle – Marlboro Bulldogs leave Braves in the doghouse